Just in time for the weekend!

Greetings and salutations!!! So would you believe that I'm already finished with Tales of the City... I started it on Monday afternoon and finished it up on my lunch break today!!! I'm not kidding when I tell you that it was a crazy-fast read! I definitely attribute that to the fact that each chapter was about 2-3 pages long. So it was easy to fly through 50 pages at a time, you know?

My thoughts on the book? I liked it. I didn't love it nearly as much as my friend Rick did, but I liked it. It was a little confusing here and there- as much of a 70s' aficionado as I claim to be, I didn't get a lot of the references/lingo, but that wasn't really an issue, I kind of picked up on what they were talking about for the most part. And I liked how the characters intertwined with each other- all connected to the main character, Mary Ann, somehow, yet they would manage to cross paths and meet each other, and not even be aware of the connection because they'd be meeting in a bar, or on the beach, etc. So they both had this person in common somehow, and for the most part, didn't even realize it. It was like a hippie granola version of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"- Mary Ann obviously being Kevin, LOL. But I thought the ending was kind of confusing and seemed to end rather abruptly. I'm assuming that's because it is the first book in a series of six, so I'm guessing the second book picks up where the first one left off.

I'm going to have to wait in suspense to find out if that's the case, though, because I reached into my trusty box of book titles, picked one at random, and voila:

Behold, my latest read- and a recent find, at that! Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl. I just bought this baby a few months ago for $1 at my last used-booksale-binge! Ruth Reichl is a restaurant critic for The New York Times, and she's written a bunch of memoir books, including this one, Comfort Me with Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires. I have them all, and I haven't read any of them yet, so I'm uber-excited! This is her first memoir, and she writes about her childhood mostly- how her mother was a terrible cook, apparently, and how she got into the food/restaurant sensualist arena. I've never read a food memoir before, but I have quite a few of them, and I like food, and I like memoirs, so I can't imagine why I wouldn't like food memoirs!!! :-D

I hope you're all having lovely weeks! This week has seemed to go by slowly, no? Not in a bad way, just in a "shouldn't-today-be-Friday" way... ya know? Thank God tomorrow is ACTUALLY Friday! Who's got fun and lively weekend plans for the first weekend of February??? It's going to warm up to almost 60 degrees here over the weekend.... I can't WAIT!!!! It was bitterly cold today. I mean, BITTER. Which will just make this weekend weather extra-pleasant!

Time to go make some dinner and watch TV! I'll be reading blogs tonight and hope to get to comment on a few! There are so many I love, it's hard enough to get through them all, let alone leave comments! Too many good bloggers! :-)

Free almond butter!!! What could be better???

I completely meant to put this in my post earlier, but totally forgot... if you go to Mark and Heather's blog, they're giving away a free jar of natural almond butter! Sign up by Saturday to get your name into the raffle!

Good luck to you, but no offense, I hope I win. I have NEVER tried almond butter before, and I really  want to... I just can't bring myself to buy it because it's so expensive!!!! But I totally want to try it, so I'm hoping to win!   :-)

Winter wonderland

A vast majority of my afternoon went into an internal debate of whether to go to the gym or not.  :-)   It's nice to know that I'm putting my brain and mental energy to good use, huh?  ;-D  It's been lightly snowing steadily all day long, and the area has been under a winter weather storm advisory warning all day and all evening. I really wanted to go to the gym, but certainly didn't want to risk my safety trying to get there! In the end, I opted to play it safe and workout from home. The gym will be there tomorrow... and the day after that... and the day after that... LOL.  I think it was a good judgment call on my part. The roads were fine on the drive home, but my apartment parking lot was really  slippery, and I slid significantly twice trying to get up the little hill to my parking lot! And it's seriously a tiny hill, barely a baby-sized one. So I definitely think I made the right decision!

So instead of the gym, I hopped on my Netflix account and did the Crunch: Super SlimDown Pilates and Yoga combo workout instead. I have the Crunch: Fat-Burning Yoga workout, which I love but wasn't in the mood for, and I've done the Crunch: Candlelight Yoga workout on Netflix too. I really like the Crunch series a lot. And while I do Pilates and Yoga separately on a regular basis, I've never combined them in the same workout. I was intrigued and thought it would be interesting and fun, so I gave it a try. I LOVED it!!!! Definitely more of a challenge to do together... I could feel my breath pacing and my heartrate get faster, and I was definitely feeling it, but in that good way you feel a tough workout, not the oh-my-God-I-think-I'm-going-to-die way, LOL. It was fast-paced and the instructor was easy to follow. I felt like the workout took two great core workouts and put them together into a nice, flowing routine that really got my blood flowing and my energy going!I'll definitely be doing "Yogalates" again!

LOL, speaking of Netflix, guess what I got in the mail today? Okay, time for an 80s flashback... who remembers this show?

Oh yes, kids, I ordered the first disc of Season 1 of Gimme a Break.  I LOVED this show as a kid!!!! Nell Carter was just such a smartass, and she cracked me up! I wanted her to come live at my house and take care of me! Haha. Anyway, I saw that Season 1 was out on DVD and I just had to get it and revisit my childhood. I'm sure it won't be nearly as funny or entertaining as I remember it being when I was seven years old- as was the case when I bought Jem and the Holograms when it first came out on DVD a few years ago... I watched it and was like, hmmmm.....- but that's okay. That's the beauty of Netflix... I'll just send it on back! I probably won't start watching it until the weekend, so I'll let you know what my thoughts are on it then.

Other than my exciting Netflix finds, nothing else is really going on! I'm really barreling through Tales of the City.... I read about 50 pages on my lunch break today, so I'm already about one-third of the way into the book! It's a really  fast read, because each chapter is only about two or three pages long. It's good so far. Lotta drugs, lotta free lovin' going on left and right, but those were the times, you know? I can't help but think of classic 70s sitcoms while I'm reading it... I keep thinking of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (probably because the main character's name is Mary Ann, and she's this really naive girl from Cleveland, and Mary Richards from TMTMS was a naive girl from Minneapolis), and Three's Company. I really have a lot of TV on the brain lately, it seems! Haha.

And on that note, it seems fitting to say that I'm off to make dinner and watch my Tuesday night TV shows (The Biggest Loser and The Office), and try to go to bed early tonight... I have a bit of a busy day at work tomorrow! I'll be catching up on blogs tonight too... so mant great blogs, so little time!!!   :-D

Zero energy

Whew... I have just been dragging all day today... physically AND mentally! Luckily it was pretty quiet at work today!

And now, as promised, here is my delayed post.

First of all, did anyone else (besides Heather over at Heather Bakes) think that last night's episode of The Office that came on after the Super Bowl was weird, and to be honest, kinda sucked? I am a huge fan and I was definitely disappointed. Maybe the writers thought that everyone would be too drunk from the Super Bowl parties to care? LOL. Definitely not their finest work!

I hope you all had great weekends, however you spent them. Mine was pretty great- low-key, relaxing, and as usual, too short. Why do the weekends fly by so quickly, and then weekdays drag on for an eternity? Where's the justice in that???????????

First and foremost, I finished- yes, finished!- Chasing Harry Winston. It's a very fast read. I enjoyed it for what it was- a light, breezy, completely unrealistic chick lit book. I read some reviews on goodreads and people were just slamming it for its completely unbelievable plot and shallow, one-dimensional characters, and, to be honest, I could certainly see where they were coming from. The premise and the characters' lives were totally unrealistic, and not very believable (as was the ending). The characters were a little shallow and unlikable at times. But it is a chick lit novel, not Great Expectations. If you want heavy reading or something substantial, this is probably not the book for you. Take it for what it is... silly and fun! That's the attitude that I went into with the book, and maybe that's why I wasn't as sorely disappointed as some other readers seemed to be, because I had no intention of taking it seriously. Although I will say, that out of all of Lauren Weisberger's books, that I liked this one the least. I LOVED The Devil Wears Prada, and I liked Everyone Worth Knowing more than this book. But I liked this one too. Anyway. Just my two cents. :-)

And without further adieu... here is my latest book!

It's called Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin. This is actually a book within a series of six books, and this is the first one. I actually own the first three in the series- acquired all from book sales, naturally- and haven't read any of them, so it's a good thing I picked the first one! I bought this a few years ago at my favorite book sale. My friend Rick actually made me buy it... he insisted on it! He said it was such a great series, so I trusted his judgment (plus he was pretty insistent on it!). So the series is about a group of residents in a house-turned-apartment complex in San Francisco in the mid 1970s- the time of free love, free drugs, free spirits, disco dancing, all that good clean squeaky fun. :-) The first book is mostly focused on the story of Mary Ann Singleton, a 25-year-old girl who visits San Francisco from Cleveland on a whim, by herself, and immediately falls in love with the city and decides to stay. She gets an apartment in this house (the landlady tapes a joint to her door that she personally grew in her own marijuana garden as a "housewarming" present... she kind of reminds me of a Mrs. Roper from Three's Company, only with pot), takes a job as a secretary at an ad agency, etc. I started it on my lunch break today and am about 50 pages into it so far. It's fun! I feel like I'm back in 1975, LOL. I am a big fan of the '70s- NOT the drugs and free love part, haha, I mean the music, the clothes, the TV shows, I think it's all so funky and fun- so I think this will be another successful read! Good call, Rick, good call. ;-D Ah, he knows me so well.

So that was the reading portion of the weekend. Now onto my yummy food and snacks and fun food finds!

SATURDAY:

Ah, how I missed my beloved Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls so.

With skim milk, a sliced banana, and oodles of cinnamon. I like to mix everything up like crazy after I pour the milk so that the milk gets all frothy and cinnamony. :-)

After breakfast I did a quick trip to Trader Joe's for my staple items (sodium-free whole wheat bread, chicken, salmon burgers... I consider all these things "staple items"), and saw that they did not have the Clif and Luna White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars. Sigh. But I knew that one place would have them... and so, I went to Whole Foods, and there they were!

Yay! I haven't tried one yet, but I plan on it this week! I was so happy to find them. I get sad when I see cool products and finds on other blogs and I can't find them anywhere. :-( Not the case here!

I hadn't had an Egg McMuffin in a while, so that was lunch:

3 egg whites prepared a la microwave, with steamed spinach and chopped onion flakes on an Arnold's Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin (they are the perfect size for Microwaved Egg McMuffins!). And some red pepper hummus on the side. Happiness.

Dinner was a shrimp stir-fry:

Frozen shrimp, instant brown rice, chili pepper sauce, pepper and onion stir-fry mix. Simple and tasty. And later on that night before bed I snacked on a bag of Smart Balance Heart Healthy Popcorn. I love to eat popcorn on the weekends because it takes me forever to eat, and I can curl up in bed with my book, the remote, a blanket, and a big bowl of popcorn. I'm getting really, really old... just a few years ago, I was out all night! No more for this Grandma! I'm too old and tired for all that now!!!

SUNDAY:

Breakfast was the same thing on Sunday as it was on Saturday. The exact same thing, just in a different color bowl. So I didn't feel the need to photograph it again. Just scroll on up if you forgot what it looks like. :-) Alas, I only have a little left of my beloved Barbie's Spoonfuls. Maybe 1/4 cup, and the cereal dust. I won't be buying more for a while though- I got a little Kashi-crazy a few weeks ago and ended up buying two new cereals (new to me, anyway)- the Mighty Bites and the Honey Sunshine. And they've patiently been waiting to be tried out. So I figured I'd use up the rest of the Shredded Spoonfuls mixed with one of my new Kashi cereals over the weekend. Which should I try first- the Mighty Bites or the Honey Sunshine? I only want to open one box right now because I'm only eating cold cereal on the weekends now, and I don't want them to go stale.

I ran some typical-yet-enjoyable errands: Target and Wegmans. No fun new finds or splurges at Target. Oh, wait, that's not true... I picked up some new coffee for our little coffee club at work... Archer Farms Macadamia Praline. It was only $3! The club was happy with this selection. We brewed a pot this morning. Pretty tasty! Same thing at Wegmans- I spent, like, $50, and almost none of it went to food! It was all stuff like toilet paper, cat litter, cat food, melatonin tablets (I take this stuff to help me sleep sometimes... it's like $6 for a pack of 20, but I don't use them often, and they work really well, so whatevs), aluminum foil, etc. I did get a little bit of actual edible items- Ranch soy chips (LOVE these things), natural pb, sugar-free jelly, French Vanilla tea (because I either drank all that damn Sugar Cookie tea or I put them away somewhere and can't remember where... knowing me, it's probably the latter!), sweet potatoes (OBVI), frozen veggies, and a Pure Protein Bar. Still... I much prefer the grocery shopping trips where I get a lot of fun stuff for not a lot of money. Ah, it all balances out.

Lunch was a new product- and very appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday!

I present you with: Tabatchnick's Vegetarian Chili. I impulsively bought this at Wegmans a few weeks ago, and it was my first time trying it out. The box comes with two frozen servings- all you do is break one off, cut it open, put it in a microwave-safe bowl, and run with it until it's hot. The ingredient list was all ingredients that I could read and pronounce and identify, which is always good, and the nutritional stats weren't too shabby either: one serving has 180 calories, 3.5 g fat, 360 mg sodium (very impressive for chili!), 28 g carbs, 8 g fiber, 12 g protein. Anyway, be forewarned that it makes a small bowl of chili- you might want to bulk it up with veggies, cheese, a sandwich or salad, etc. I added crinkle cut carrots and pepper and onion mix to mine and paired it with a piece of whole wheat toast. Anyhow, all that said, it was delicious!!!!! Very tasty and flavorful and filling... I loved it! I'd definitely buy it again! The only thing I didn't like too much about it was that I had a definite slight aftertaste, even after I brushed my teeth, used Listerine, and chewed gum throughout the afternoon... I couldn't get rid of a slight lingering taste no matter what! Ah well. It was worth it! If you can find this at the grocery store, give it a try! I'll definitely be trying their other products too! I was looking at their website and I'd love to try their Smoked Salmon Chowder, but I don't remember seeing that at Wegmans.

I had a leisurely Sunday afternoon- riding the stationary bike at the gym while reading, coming home, taking a shower, surfing the web, watching the World News Tonight (again, channeling my inner old person... a few years I would have never watched the world news or any of those evening anchor news shows; now, not only do I watch them from time to time, but I catch myself shaking my head when I see something upsetting or disappointing or sad... next week I'll probably be complaining about the "damn kids and their rock and roll music", haha), and then eventually started making dinner.

I saw this combo on the lovely Alyssa's blog and simply had to try it out for myself:

I ripped off her dinner completely, LOL. I had a Boca burger (with crushed red pepper flakes on top- I also had some horseradish mustard on the side to dip it on, not pictured), steamed broccoli instead of spinach, and the intriguing Laughing Cow/sweet potato combo... I never thought to put these two things together, but she swore up and down it was amazing... and was she ever right! I thought it was GREAT!!!! This is one of many reasons why I love the food blogging community... because I find all these wonderful, amazing, healthy food ideas! I'm not sure I ever would have thought these two things together! This is just one of many reasons why Alyssa is so awesome! (If you don't read her blog, do yourself a favor and do so... she's a sweetheart, and she loves Wegmans too... a friend of Wegmans is a friend of mine!) Thank you, Alyssa, for this great idea! I might try it with chicken next time instead of a Boca Burger for my protein part of the meal... they were very tasty altogether, but my tummy made some weird noises/reactions for a while after dinner, but that could have been for any reason, or maybe I was just digesting, LOL! I grilled up some chicken for dinner tonight and made extra for dinner tomorrow, so I'm thinking of trying it out then!

So they're calling for 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow, and of course, most of it is expected to start falling in the afternoon, just in time for the drive home. Glorious. I was planning on hitting the gym tomorrow, but if it comes down as badly as they're predicting (fingers crossed it won't), I'll have to skip it and work out at home instead. I am a gym bunny and love going, but I'm not going to risk my safety and my car's safety trying to get a workout in! I'll just do yoga or Pilates or something. I did a lot of heavy lifting tonight with weights, so a nice yoga or Pilates workout would probably do my body good. But I'll pack my gym gear tonight just in case.... it wouldn't be the first time they were wrong about a storm prediction! I think they do it just for scare tactics and ratings!

Well, I've bored you enough for one night, don't you think? ;-) I'm off to get stuff ready for work tomorrow and watch some of the new TNT series, Trust Me. Is anyone else watching that? Thoughts? I wasn't sold on it at first, but then I watched the episode again (in typical cable TV fashion, they showed it over and over throughout the week and weekend), and it grew on me! So I'll tune in tonight. Then I'll make myself a yummy bedtime snack of sugar-free vanilla pudding (trying to use up the last of my milk from the weekend- I'm frugal- more grandma-esque behaviors!!!) with cinnamon and some Annie's chocolate bunnies and ff whipped cream- this is a great little combo that you have to try out the next time the urge for pudding hits you, or you need to use up the last of your milk, haha. :-)

Goodnight bloggies!!!!

Short but sweet post

Hi everyone! Hope you are all winding down fun and exciting weekends! I wanted to get in a weekend recap post tonight- I have lots of pics and fun weekend finds to share with you!-, but I just finished Chasing Harry Winston (Michelle, I LOVED it! It was so cute! I couldn't put it down!), and now I'm getting ready to change into my pjs and watch The Office (there's a new one-hour episode after the Super Bowl post-game show- yay! Not that I have any interest in watching the post-game show, which I'm sure will run late, but a NEW ONE-HOUR episode of The Office is definitely worth staying up late for!!!) , write in my journal, and hit the hay! I'll be back with a real post tomorrow night... and I'll also reveal my new book pick... so you'll just have to be in suspense until tomorrow!

Goodnight!

A good excuse

Hi all! TGIF!!!!!!!!!! So I didn't post last night, but I swear, I have a really good reason. I was THISCLOSE to finishing Just Between Us, and I just couldn't put the book down! I just had to finish it! Anyone who's ever been really into a book... you totally understand! :-) I had to stay up late to finish it0 like 12:15 (I would have finished earlier, but got sidetracked with The Office, 30 Rock, and a phone call from my sister), but I DID finish it! And I'm so glad I did, because it was SO good!!!! It pretty much wrapped up how I expected it would, give or take a little surprise twist here and there, but it didn't matter... it was oh so very good. I LOVED it. I have yet to come across a Cathy Kelly book I didn't like! :-) I strongly recommend it! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Not only did I stay up late to finish it, but THEN I woke up at 5 a.m. and never really got back into a sound sleep... I tossed and turned and definitely dozed here and there, but never a full, sound sleep, or at least that's how it felt... so I spent the day totally sleep-deprived. And then I got to work and drank an abundance of coffee to overcompensate for my tiredness. Not the best idea, although it certainly seemed like a good idea at the time. But the good news is that it was an extremely quiet, non-busy day today (thank God, because things have been so chaotic and stressful at work lately, and have finally started to calm down and resume a little normalcy). So it was a good day to be sleep-deprived, because I didn't have to use my brain much today.

I am so jazzed for my new book pick! I picked this baby from the box of titles (random pick, as usual, it's so much more fun that way!), and I'm so glad I ended up picking it!

Chasing Harry Winston, by Lauren Weisberger! Yay! Any Lauren Weisberger fans out there? She wrote The Devil Wears Prada (one of my all-time favorite books), and Everyone Worth Knowing (also a very good book). This is her latest novel. It's about three friends who are about to turn 30 and they make a pact to do something drastic that will change their lives in the upcoming year- the serial monogamist who just ended a relationship will casually play the field, the serial dater will get into a real relationship for the first time in her life, and the third friend hasn't decided yet, LOL. I acquired this baby for $1 at my local library a few months ago- they sell used books too. I read the first chapter on my lunch break, and it's great so far! I can't imagine I'm not going to like it. I've really been on a roll with the good books lately!

So I haven't been taking any food pics lately. Mostly because I've pretty much been eating the same things all week, and I don't want to bore the serious food bloggers out there. :-) But here's a rundown of what I've been eating- while it might be monotonous, all of my eats have certainly made me happy:

*Oatmeal*: Can we just stop and discuss for a minute just how much I love oatmeal? I mean, this is not anything that should surprise food bloggers, as oatmeal is one of the most popular eats I read about on all of your fabulous blogs. But I need to say it anyway. Oatmeal might be my best friend these days, and I don't care how sad that sounds. :-) I am always reluctant to eat oatmeal, not because I don't love it, but because I can only do oatmeal in the winter/colder weather (my tummy likes cold breakfasts, like cereal and milk, in warmer weather), and I despise winter and cold weather, and so I psychologically equate oatmeal with cold weather. Isn't it funny how food can be so psychological? LOL. Then when I can't deny the fact that it's winter any longer, I bust out the oatmeal, and remember just how much I love it. Lately I've been waking up in the morning and getting really, really excited for my oatmeal breakfasts. At first, I wondered if that was strange, but my sister admitted that she does the same thing, and all of you seem to love oatmeal so much too, so it's nice to know that other people share the strong oatmeal love! I love reading about all the different oatmeal combos you all are eating. Me, I keep it the same every day, because I never get tired of it- 1/2 cup quick oats, 1 cup+ water (I don't like my oats thick- I like a BIG bowl of oatmeal! So I add more water), oodles of cinnamon, ground flaxseed, and a banana. I've put PB in it before, but since I eat PB&J every day for lunch, I usually don't put it in the oats. So I've been eating this combination for weeks now, and I can't get enough of it! Hurray for oatmeal, one of the best foods ever. I must admit, I do miss my fave cereal- Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls- and I'm thinking that's tomorrow's breakfast. Cold weather be damned! :-)

*Sweet potatoes*: I've had one with dinner almost every night this week. Another food that I SERIOUSLY never tire of. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't really tire of foods in general, even if I eat them every day. Does that make me strange? What can I say... I like what I like! Plus I've been so worn out from work lately that I just haven't had the energy to get creative with dinners. Still, I'm eating my last SP for dinner tonight, and mixing it up over the weekend. The shelf-stable carbs are feeling ignored. And I'm feeling some brown rice love this weekend, and have some ideas for dishes. I'll post pics!

*Tribe Sweet Red Pepper Hummus*: Another reason I've been eating lots of sweet potatoes is because I have very recently and joyously discovered that sweet potatoes + hummus= love and happiness. I'll be using up the rest of my hummus tonight with my last SP... I have it all planned down to a science. Haha. I'll also be dining on salmon (salmon burger from TJs), and steamed broccoli while watching my latest Netflix DVD- disc 2 of season 1 of The Practice. Did anyone else like this show?

*All of my preworkout snack bars this week have been chocolate-based. Chocolate is always a good thing.*

What's everyone up to this weekend? Who'll be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday? I was invited to a party, but I have less than zero interest in football, and the party is like 45 minutes away, so I think I'll take a pass on it!

I'm off to make some dinner and watch me some Dylan McDermott! I'll definitely be reading more of my book tonight too! Reading and watching TV... I know what you're going to say. I am a total party animal. ;-D

Ghost town

That's the best way I can describe my office today... virtually deserted! We had quite the snowfall overnight, which turned into a combination of sleet and ice in the morning. You know, the really fun stuff. The roads were actually fine, but cleaning off my car was another story. I swear, all the snow fell directly on my car.  :-)   And my parking lot was virtually an ice skating rink. I had the closest spot possible to my apartment, and getting to it was quite an adventure!

The nice thing about almost no one being in the office is that it's quiet and there's not a lot of work. I had a few projects on my desk to keep me occupied though.  And everything turned to slushy rain by afternoon anyway, so the roads were actually fine! I'm terrified of driving in this weather- I can do rain, I can deal with snow, but the ice... that's another story!!! Luckily, that wasn't an issue. Hopefully we can repeat that pattern tomorrow morning. And dare I venture to say- me, of all people- that it wasn't even that cold when I left the gym tonight around 5:45. I know saying that will come back to bite me in the ass tomorrow, and it's going to be frigid cold. I have that kind of luck- I think it comes with being Irish.  ;-)

Speaking of Irish, I'm so into my book right now! I hate whenever I have to put it down and focus on other aspects of my life, like working, sleeping, driving, etc. It's that good. Cathy Kelly has this amazing way of drawing you so into the lives of their characters, you definitely feel like you really get to know them, and you find yourself experiencing the emotions they do, going through the good and the bad right there with them. And she's funny. I find myself laughing out loud from something on every other page. I'm so, so glad that I picked this book. I have four Cathy Kelly books- her books are kind of hard to find because she's an international author. Every book of hers I own, I acquired from a used book sale. I've read one so far, and I'm working my way through this one, and the other two are patiently waiting to be read. I'll get to them, don't worry about that!!!! Hence the whole point of "No Book Left Behind", right?  ;-D Anyway. If you can get your hands on a Cathy Kelly book and you love chick lit, I strongly suggest you give her a try. You won't be disappointed! Especially if you like British chick lit, like Jane Green and Sophie Kinsella... it's definitely along the same lines of humor... that sly and witty humor, and everyone drinks one too many "pints" at the "pub", and eats "biscuits" and "Indian curry takeaway" and goes on " grand holidays".   :-)

Sorry I don't have a more exciting post, other than griping about the weather, LOL. It was just a rather uneventful day. My plans tonight include reading, relaxing, writing in my journal, and getting my Top Chef  on. My dinner tonight is simplistic- a sandwich and steamed broccoli and a salad- I have some tuna I want to use up, and salad mix I want to use up, and hummus that I want to use up, and well, just eat in general, because hummus is fabulous. I never ate tuna as a kid, because I despise mayonnaise and anything that has mayo in it, and I always have, so I've always steered clear of tuna and egg salad sandwiches, since they're always based with mayo. But I do like tuna sushi and just in general. And then as an adult who makes her own meals, I've just learned to use substitutes for mayo to make those things, like mustard, sour cream, etc. Kind of sad it took me so long to realize that, huh? I just never really gave it much thought, LOL. So that's dinner. And something fabulous for a bedtime snack. I just haven't decided what yet. We'll see what craving strikes before bed.   :-)